America the Free
America, despite her weaknesses, despite her failures, stands firm as the most successful experiment of human government since the dawn of civilization. Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, establishing herself with the Constitution and securing her people with the Bill of Rights, America has provided more stability and protection for her citizens than any other competing system of government.
One of my finest international friends is Paul Pillai of India. A moral and spiritual giant, he heads one of the most effective forces for Christianity in that chaotic nation of over 400 million. Paul once told me, “What is good anywhere else in the world is better in America. What is bad in America is worse everywhere else.”
Alexis de Tocqueville’s perspective on the young American republic was stated as, “America is the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest power over men’s souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country were it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.”
America owes her greatness to two essentials – knowledge and virtue. When James Madison arrived at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he carried with him a manuscript he had compiled entitled, “Of Ancient and Modern Confederacies.” It was a study of governments from the Greeks to a “modern” attempt in 1579. He had done his homework. From this framework our founding fathers hammered out a system of government, though in need of refinement and stabilization, that would amaze the world with its genius!
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